Twitter Provides Sneak Peek of What 'Shadowban' Notifications Might Look Like

pcmag.com:

Twitter has long "shadowbanned" content—hiding people and posts from search results or feeds or otherwise just limiting an account's reach. Depending on who you ask, the move is blatant censorship or an effort to thwart bad actors who manipulate and derail conversations.

However you feel about it, Twitter owner Elon Musk last year promised to be more more transparent about why accounts are shadowbanned, and this week we got a look at how that might work. Andrea Conway, a designer at Twitter—now known as X—showed off a mock-up of possible "shadowban" labels.

In screenshots shared by Conway, a notification tells someone Twitter has "added a label to your account which may impact its reach." Clicking a "Learn more" link displays a page that tells the user why they were labeled and gives them the option to appeal. The final version may look different, Conway notes.

This particular notification is for entire accounts; Twitter instituted a similar warning system for individual tweets in April 2023. Both systems work similarly. Users get a notification that their tweet was flagged and they're given a chance to appeal the decision if needed.

Under Musk, Twitter has embraced a "Freedom of speech, not reach" philosophy, where the company doesn't take down as many posts as it used to but does limit the visibility of some of the more objectionable content. The philosophy has as many detractors as it has fans since those objectionable posts can get pretty bad.

According to Twitter's rules, flagged accounts and tweets are subject to exclusion from search results, trending topics, and recommendation notifications. Additionally, such accounts and tweets are removed from the social network's timelines while also reducing profile